On my way to Massey today, I listened to a recording by Richard Farrell playing Rachmaninov’s Prelude Number 2, one of my favourite pieces. I found myself thinking about the hundreds of musicians who have played this music and why I prefer some versions to others.

The notes are the same and the instructions on how Rachmaninov imagined the pianist playing it never change. Yet in every version there is something of the pianist in the music that sets it apart from other versions.

Some words and phrases that slip into our writing really deserve a visit from the delete key. I found myself frequently falling into the trap of being in love with certain words or phrases but later realising they really did not add anything to my piece of writing.

This Christmas I have been haunted by one statistic – 1 in 3 New Zealand women are victims of physical or emotional abuse. The figure troubled me because, as I looked at my own family of girls this figure stacked up.

I have only dared to speak to closely trusted friends and family about what happened to me. So for 40 years it has been locked up inside me….my shameful secret…the one I didn’t dare tell anyone because I blamed myself for what happened. I should have known better.

The writer’s journey can take many forms and so as a final blog for the year I want to talk about mine. It was, is, without doubt….long and arduous.

Last night our te reo (Maori Language) class had its end of year function. This is Bruce’s and my first year with Haare Williams and before that we had been going to night class for about five years so you might say we are fluent but we are not ….still learning but always gaining insights and confidence….slowly. Haare is a broadcaster, poet and wonderful artist.

Bruce is preparing a team of apprentices to compete at the World Skills competitions in Sao Paulo next year. There will be 75 countries competing and New Zealand (NZ) usually does well for its size. However, one thing consistently lets the NZ competitors down and that is their lack of preparedness for toughing it out when things get rough as they invariably do in such competitive situations.

He pretty much publishes everything except some early stuff that hasn’t been published because they were not good enough. He relies on his editor’s opinion about his stories and believes that they save writers from publishing bad stories, although they can make mistakes sometimes. He recalls how one of his stories was rejected by two editors then some years later the same story won an award.